The unstoppable churning of the present moment into a past memory, the impossibility of "return", the futility of nostalgia,
and the "pain of ignorance" beautifully traced in Milan Kundera's novel "Ignorance" epitomize to me, what is a Blog.

January 29, 2005

VGCats

VG Cats - 138 - Challenging.

For those of us who don't play games here is a peak into the Gamers' world, through comics. The cultural markers and speech are very authentic. The graphics and execution are lovely too, or should I simply say: cool!

3 Comments:

There's a lot of hit and miss there. More miss than hit. I give the artist credit, though, for being able to create something personal in a consistent manner. And the art, content, and execution improves greatly over the course of the comic.

He's finding his voice. Hopefully that voice will focus more on the politics of the game industry. I would like to see more of the particular comic you linked to. That's where he could find his niche.

You know there's something else about the Gamers' world you might like to know. They're big supporters of Bush and his policies.

It's true! Gamers really identify with the whole ownership society agenda of ShrubCo. They like the idea of somebody gettin' "owned". ;)

I agree, the later work is significantly better.Political or not, I like the ones which are sharp and perceptive in respect to the sub-culture they're depicting. Like this one:http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=72

You said:>You know there's something else about the Gamers' world you might like to >know. They're big supporters of Bush and his policies.

I can see how that could be true, do you have any evidence to support it, however?

Ah, you got me. No evidence to support my theory. I said that only to support my play on the "ownership society" thread in a previous post.

In a game, the idea of getting "owned" relates to the ability of player 1 to sweep other players without getting "fragged" as much as player 1 "frags".

I have a sinking suspicion, though, that gamers - well, game developers anyway - in general look down on typically "leftist" ideals like unionizing. The hours and work/lifestyle issues in the game industry are terrible. But I've never heard any rumblings from the developers and artists about coming together with one voice to change the way the industry "does business".

Most game industry people seem to accept it as the cost of working in the industry they love. The film industry union has a lot of power in the way things get done in Hollywood, although the animator's union seems to have no power or voice at all.

A game union may help or hurt, but there aren't many developers in the industry working toward seeing one form. Not as much passion for better working conditions as they have actually making games, I suppose.